MorganAsh

06/01/2014

Minister wants pensioners to be able to switch to better annuities regularly and escape poor-value schemes

24/09/2013

Advertorial: Origo Standards have been working behind the scenes to simplify and speed up annuity quotes for over 20 years.

31/07/2013

Updated figures from the Office for National Statistics show a north-south divide, which impacts on pension payout rates.

26/07/2013

Whether the issue is percieved overcharging by the regulator or charging too little for complex advice, the level of charges will be under scrutiny for some time.

04/07/2013

How do you ensure members get the right form of retirement income for them? Premier's Ray Tang looks at the steps to ensure good member outcomes, in the latest Technical View.

03/07/2013

MorganAsh recently joined with Just Retirement to present a webinar about how to get the best enhanced annuity rate for your clients. To see the webinar again click on this link: http://www.justretirement.com/JustAdviser/Learning-zone/Webinars/Webinar-library/

This webinar covered five key areas, and finished with a live Q&A session with both Andrew Gething, MD of Morgan Ash, the largest tele-underwriter in Europe, and Tony Clark, Product Marketing Manager, Just Retirement Ltd:

03/07/2013

Head of product development predicts acceleration of trend toward bespoke annuity pricing

20/03/2013

Beware Cidar!

While some of us may have had a bad experience drinking Cider in our youth, the introduction of the Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 is due to become law in March 2013, and has implications for all of us.

Prior to the introduction of this new law, insurance was written on the basis of maritime law from the last century. The principle of this law was that the consumer was responsible for telling the insurance company what they needed to know. Hence, when problems arose because the insurance company wrote the business without knowing all the facts it was referred to as “non-disclosure” and the consumer had not disclosed material facts. The legal liability was with the consumer.

Over the last few years, a legal review and discussion between the ABI, FOS, FSA and consumer groups all agreed this was unfair and no longer appropriate and it was agreed to change the law. This CIDAR law went through Parliament on 8th March 2012 and is due to come into force from 8th March 2013.

The consumer will be responsible for taking reasonable care in providing the information requested of them. It is up to the Adviser to ensure they request all the appropriate information.

The law includes various guidance on the consumer's responsibility and what is reasonable care, misrepresentation and dishonesty.

The law also tries to clarify who has the liability. Where the Adviser is acting on a single tied channel then the liability lies with the Insurer. When the Adviser is providing a whole of market service, the adviser is acting on behalf of the consumer, and they are liable for collecting the information.

The FSA states that Advisers should be trained and competent in everything they do that may lead to consumer detriment. This includes the medical assessment. Clearly as the medical assessment information greatly affects the annuity price, the Adviser is responsible should they not complete this task adequately. It is estimated that over 50% of consumers are losing out due to inadequate medical assessments.

From March 2013 Advisers have 3 options:

1. To undertake training on medical issues so they are competent to undertake the medical assessments

2. To abstain from being involved in the medical assessment by letting the client fill in the form

3. To ensure a professional specialist undertakes the medical assessment, such as MorganAsh.

19/03/2013

10/10/2012

Medical information provider MorganAsh will provide full outsource underwriting and claims services for a small insurer.. Underwriting,Foresters, Morgan Ash, non-disclosure

17/09/2012

Seventy thousand retirees are missing the chance to raise their retirement income by up to 50 per cent each year through mistakes in filling out their application forms.

17/09/2012

The FSA has responded to an industry provider letter regarding the phase out of financial advisers collating medical information.. Insurer, Adviser / Broking, Regulation, Underwriting,FSA, Critical Illness, Income Protection